An overview of PMI’s new PDU category structure

Important note: As of the fall of 2015, PMI has changed the requirements for the maximum and minimum number of PDUs that may be earned in the various PDU categories. For information about these changes, please check out this post.

The new structure is not so different from the old, but as with a lot of PMI’s overhauled systems the new version does seem to be more streamlined than before, and makes it easier for project managers to earn and report PDUs. PMI overhauled the system based on feedback from a formal study conducted with PMI credential holders, PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s) and project management community leaders and, according to the Customer Care FAQ, the changes have so far been positively received (in the survey, 82% were either satisfied or very satisfied with the new categories).

What’s changed?

The new category structure has been simplified; the number of categories has been reduced from 18 to 6. In addition, categories are now indicated by letters rather than numbers; for example, the category for Enhancing the Project Management Profession is now Category E instead of Category 5.

All categories now use the rule that one hour of activity is now worth one PDU (in-class sessions, volunteering, or attending PMI meetings, for example).

Categories have been expanded to include Web 2.0 learning opportunities (opportunities that include information sharing and collaboration over the Internet).

Certain categories have limits that require all credential holders to pursue some project management continuing education as part of their credential maintenance (so you can’t earn all of your PDUs by volunteering; for example – you will need to earn at least some with continuing education.

What hasn’t changed?

The three-year renewal cycle and number of PDUs required to maintain the credential remains at 60 PDUs for PMP certification holders.

The re-certification fee structure for PMI credentials has not changed.

Category F: Working as a professional in project management (PMPs can earn five PDUs for working six out of twelve months as a project manager).

How does the new structure compare to the old?

With the release of the new PDU category structure PMI issued a helpful comparison chart showing the difference between the new category structure and the old (it’s on page six of this document).

So far I really like the new PDU category structure. In a previous post about volunteering for PDUs I mentioned that the amount of PDUs you can earn for volunteering (at your local PMI chapter or at your favorite nonprofit or charity organization, for example) has been increased from 20 to 45 total PDUs. That’s great news for those of us who enjoy being active in our communities!

If you’re a PMP certification holder (or PgMP, CAPM or otherwise), good luck with the new structure! And please let me know in a comment if you have any questions or opinions about the new system.

You can file your hours of ITIL v3 Foundation preparation under PMI’s PDU Category C: Self-directed learning. The certification itself you can’t file as a PDU – only the classes taken (during a certification course, for example) and the preparation involved with taking the certification can be used toward getting PDUs.

You have said the classes taken can be claimed for PDUs,i have done a self study and would be appearing for the certification this month, so can i claim for any PDUs , if so how many and what proof or documentation will be required while claim that.

Your webinar was likely approved under Category B as it aligned with the following (from the PMI web site under Category B):

“By attending relevant educational courses offered by training organizations NOT registered with PMI. This may include training (or a Webinar) offered by your employer, another professional or membership association, or a non R.E.P. training organization”

That being said, your podcast more aligns with Category C (from the PMI web site):

“watching videos, using interactive CD-ROMs, Podcasts or other source material”

I don’t think it is a huge deal however… PMI probably doesn’t care too much in what category these PDUs were filed under, as long as they were earned legitimately.

I have a querry that is it worth working as a fresher in any project management office……, i am asking this because being a GET in Larsen & Toubro-IES…i am indulged in project scheduling and control of a project….working with excel sheets and making S-curves of each departments….deciding dates …and all….but …i have completed my engg. In mechanical……i know it is weird to ask so here…..but i didnt found any stand except this for clearing my doubt…..plz plz help me out friends for this matter

In my opinion, any experience is good experience. If you’re working in the field of project management it sounds like a good use of your time, and can definitely help forward any career, and perhaps even more so with a career in engineering. Having a solid technical background and then moving into the field of project management is quite common, and it is widely believed that project managers who have spent time working in technical fields (as software developers, for example) are very valuable. All the best to you in your endeavors.

I’ve checked out PMI’s web site, and it appears that there is no maximum on the number of PDUs that you can earn under Category C. It also doesn’t say that there is any difference between getting PDUs for self-directed learning or through legitimate classroom sessions – so perhaps you can claim as many PDUs under self-directed learning as you like! Remember that it has to be project management based study (so learning other technical skills would not count toward project management learning-based PDUs).

Hi Nazim, you can’t get PDUs just for getting the ITIL V3 certification itself… but you can get PDUs for any classroom activity that you participated in while studying for the ITIL certification test, or any self-study that you completed. Thanks for asking!

I’m not overly familiar with Security+ certification… but generally, PDUs must be earned by studying topics related to project management – so for example, studying for your ITIL or ScrumMaster certification would qualify for PDUs, while studying for CCNA or MSCE certifications would probably not.

That being said, I’m not a representative of PMI (just a member), so I would not take my recommendation at 100% – you might want to contact your local PMI chapter or do some more research before deciding upon what activities might or might not earn you PDUs.

Hi Brian,
Thank you for your wonderful posts.
I see that simplilearn provides 30 pdus for MS Project online learning course. As you mentioned, we can claim only up to 15 pdus for self-directed learning? Would these 30 pdus be applicable?

If you are taking an actual course with Simplilearn, I believe that you could file all 30 of the PDUs. I believe that self-directed learning means more like, reading project management books, or studying up on various new project management frameworks and methodologies outside of a course – so for example, if you get a project management textbook from the library, and read that. If you’re taking a course, I am pretty sure you can claim all the PDUs for that course, even if it was an online course.

Unfortunately, if your current PMP cycle started in 2011 (so including the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, for example) then, as far as I am aware, you can’t claim PDUs for activity that you completed in the year 2010 or before.

That being said, you can carry over PDUs from a previous cycle. According to PMI, if you claim over 60 PDUs in one cycle you can carry over a maximum of 20 PDUs into the next cycle. So if you claimed your ITIL Foundation PDUs in the previous cycle you could then have them carry over to your next cycle. Does this make sense?

As I’m not affiliated with PMI you should take my advice I give with a grain of salt – as such, you might want to contact PMI directly to see if you might be able to claim over those PDUs from your ITIL certification in 2010, or if there are any other ways you could claim them against your current cycle.

I was certified PMP on July 25,2011 and tried to report PDUs under category F for the 6 month duration I worked as a PM from July 25th to Dec 2011.The CCRS however rejected my claim.Am I not eligible or am I not reporting it accurately.Pls help clarify what I need to do.Thanks in advance!

I filed some PDUs for time spent working as a project manager and they went through fine. The only thing that I can think of is that the period from July 25, 2011 to December of 2011 is not a six month period – it is only a five month period. My recommendation is to try filing again using a six month period (so for example, from July 25, 2011 to January 25, 2012) and see if that works.

I have attended an ITIL foundation training from a non-PMI REP. Can you please tell me if I can claim PDUs out of this training under “Category B”?

You’ve already explained that if we have done a self study we can claim PDUs under Category C, however, I am interested to know if they can be claimed under Category B as I’ve attended an instructor led classroom training.

Yes, as far as I am aware you can file the non-PMI affiliated classes under Category B: Continuing Education. You might want to have some sort of proof handy that you took the class that includes how many hours of classroom study you completed in case the PMI admins ask for proof when you file the PDUs. I’ve never had that happen, but it is a possibility. All the best to you!

Regarding your questions, I am afraid that as I am not myself a member of PMI or associated with PMI, I would not recommend you take my “final word” on what courses or work may or may not be valid to earn PDUs from PMI. That being said, it does not seem that the ISO 27001 Lead Auditor course would be applicable toward earning PDUs, as it does not seem project management-based – it seems more technical in nature and related to systems security audits.

The COBIT training, on the other hand, seems to involve training on an IT management and IT governance framework. In that manner it does in fact seem that you would have a good case for claiming a certain number of PDUs for taking that course. In a similar vein would be a course such as an ITIL Foundation or ScrumMaster Certified course – these courses are not PMI methodology-based, but as they involve a project management framework you can earn PDUs for taking them.

If you have worked for two different companies in the field of project management during the current three-year cycle, what you can do is file the hours in two different entries. So for example, if you worked for three months at one company and three months at another company, file the hours for the first three months in one entry, and then file the hours for the second three months in a separate entry. PMI does not restrict the number of entries you can file per category, so you can create two entries to account for PDUs earned during time spent working as a project manager at two different places.

I hope this helps! Thanks, and all the best to you in your new position.

Hello Brain,
I completed my PMP certification in Nov,2010. My three years cycle is from Nov, 2010 to Nov 2013.
I Completed MBA in project managment from Jan, 2011 to Jun, 2012. It is through distance eduction, where I have not attended any class room training. Can I claim my MBA for PDU’s? If so, how can I claim it. It will helpful if you can give me the detailed information. Thanks in advance

Congratulations on completing your MBA specializing in Project Management – I hope that it will serve you well during your future career. I do believe you can claim parts of your MBA education as PDUs; at least those parts where you were studying about project management. It seems to me that you would file your PDUs with PMI under Category B: Continuing Education. Here’s what it says on the PMI web site about Category B:

“Earn PDUs:
By completing an academic course being offered by a university or college

OR

By attending relative educational courses offered by training organizations NOT registered with PMI.

When only a portion of a course relates to your credential area of expertise, calculate PDUs by the percentage of the overall curriculum focused on the topic. Report each course separately. Entire degree programs will not be recognized for PDU credits, only individual courses.”

Using this as a guide, I would report on those courses in your program that offered project management education, and then only on those hours where you actually studied project management. Make sense?

Hi Brian
Am a PMP and ITIL Expert.Am delivering training now in ITIL. Can I claim PDUs for doing ITIL training.
Our organization has eLearning course course content approved by APMG. How many PDUs can I now offer (as approved by PMI) participants undergoing training if they go through a blend of eLearning as well as class room training?

You can earn PDUs by delivering training in project management-related disciplines. You would do this under Category D: Creating New Project Management Knowledge. On the PMI web site it indicates that you can attain PDUs under this category by “serving as a speaker or instructor for project management related courses and presentations”.

As for how many you can offer to participants, I suppose it depends on how often you teach – one hour of project management training is equal to a single PDU. Classroom learning falls under Category B, which I believe includes work completed both in classroom sessions and during at-home study. You might want to double check that.

Hi, I did a 3 day classroom training (8 hrs each day) on ITIL V3 Foundation in 2010. I do have a cerificate that says the date i am certified but there is no proof for the class room training i took. Now I would like to take CAPM course next month(Nov 2012) can i claim 24 hrs PDU now?? Pls advice.

Hope you are doing well, and glad to hear that you have completed the ITIL Foundation course – I found that to be a very interesting course; I ended up learning plenty of helpful information about IT service management.

In response to your questions: unfortunately, at least from what I recall, you can’t claim PDUs on courses or training that you took before you were certified. In other words, PDUs count only toward professional development undergone during your three-year cycle as a PMP certified project manager.

That being said, if you’re doing the Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) certification, you do not need PDUs. CAPM certified professionals have a five-year period as a CAPM, after which point they must re-take the CAPM exam, that will include updates to the PMBOK and to PMI’s project management framework during the past five years. So if you’re CAPM certified, or interested in becoming CAPM certified, you do not need to worry about earning PDUs.

Category B is the category for continuing education… that is, project management education that is in the form of academic courses (for example, at a college or university) or other relevant educational training that is not self-directed learning (which would be category C) or courses offered by PMI R.E.P.s (which would be category A).

As I commonly say, I’m not affiliated with PMI in any way, so if you want to make sure that the information I give you is correct, please click the link and double check for yourself! And best of luck to you earning and filing your PDUs.

I have one query. I am working in the project management filed, but not under the “role” of Project Manager. I have worked as construction engineer and project engineer.
My questions are,
Do I have to claim that I have worked as a project manager in the PMI test application form?
Could my test application form rejected if the “role” is as a construction engineer or site engineer…etc

The good news is, you do not have to have worked as a “project manager”… you simply need to have experience leading and directing projects. So if you were a software engineer, but you spent a number of hours leading and directing projects as a team lead, for example, then that work experience can count toward applying to take the PMP examination.

That said, not having a role as a project or program manager might put up some red flags for PMI… I don’t know for certain. You will want to make sure that you have properly documented all of the 4,500 hours of work experience that you have earned, and be ready for a PMI audit if they should decide to do one. Different collateral from the work you have done (project schedules or other artifacts) might be of use if this should happen.

Hi, I got my ITIL v3 foundation certification in 2011 by taking a 4 day prep class. I’m now preparing for my PMP. Can I claim the hours for the ITIL cert/prep course for my PDU under the self study category?

If you’re preparing to take the PMP examination, then you will not need to file PDUs… PDUs (Professional Development Units) are necessary for people who are already PMP certified and need to amass a certain number of hours of study or project management work in order to maintain their credential. You can read more about PDUs and how to earn them here.

On the other hand, I believe you can use the hours that you spent learning about ITIL as the project management education hours that are required if you want to apply to take the PMP exam. While ITIL is based in IT Service Management, I believe that you can also count those hours as “project management training”. You might want to verify that, however.

I’m very glad to hear that you are running your own project management teaching site in Spanish! It sounds like a great endeavor. It’s always fun to help people learn about project management and PMP certification. I am in Spain right now, and learning some Spanish myself… it is a fun an interesting language.

You can certainly claim some PDUs for those activities. Specifically, for your web site, you can claim PDUs under category D: Creating new project management knowledge (one PDU per one hour spent creating or delivering project management knowledge). Note that you can file a total of 45 PDUs per three-year cycle within categories D, E, and F (creating new project management knowledge, volunteering, and working as a project manager combined).

For your teaching activities, those would also be filed under category D… so you would only be able to file 45 hours total for both your teaching and website creating activities, plus any other activities in categories D, E or F. Does that make sense?

Hi Brian,
I worked as a Project Manager for past 2&1/2 years till Jan 2013. I got certified in July 2013, hence have approximately an year left. I got to know this today that i can claim 15 pdus for 3 year cycle under category 2H as PM practitioner. However, i have missed this and i am not working in the same organization now!! Can i still go ahead and claim my PDUs?

Yes, that’s no problem… as long as you have worked those hours as a project management practitioner during that cycle, you can still claim those hours for your PDUs even if you no longer work at that particular company. Hope this helps!

Is there any limit on the number of PDUs i can claim in one year in a 3-year cycle. I am on my 3rd year and unfortunately i missed to claim many PDUs for the chapter sessions i attended. I am still 40 short. Do you have any suggestions?

Currently, there is a maximum of 45 PDUs that you can claim in any particular cycle. If you attended those chapter sessions during your current cycle, you can still claim them – it doesn’t matter if you didn’t claim them right after they occurred, you can claim them at any time before your cycle is over. Good luck!

Hi Brian,
Firstly,
This is great to see such a knowledge base here. Very helpful and informative. thanks so much for helping readers like us for seek help and advice!

I secured PMP certification in July 2013. Question regarding earning PDUs – I teach ITIL to fellow associates in form of ITIL study group for ITIL V3 foundation. I guess ITIL is related to Project Management area and hence teaching ITIL could be used for earning PDUs in CAT D. I am not very sure, but request your inputs please.

On another note, I am also an app developer and wanted to create few mobile apps that could help others to learn the ITTO and PM concepts via mobile apps. Would developing a mobile app for PMP related studies (such as ITTO practive quiz, flash cards) count towards any of the PDU CAT?

I do believe that your ITIL training, as project management training, can be claimed for earning PDUs. You do not have to train PMI’s methodologies or frameworks in particular – any sort of training for project management should suffice.

Meanwhile, I think that creating mobile apps for PMP-related studies would also count toward “Creating New Project Management Knowledge”. You might want to check with PMI for that one.

I am working towards getting PMP certified, and before I submit an application, I have to have 35 hours of project management education. I keep seeing reference to PDUs when someone is already certified. Is there a distinction between PDUs and hours of PM education? I recently took a class on Scrum that is worth 14 PDUs. Can I claim those toward the hours requirement for my PMP exam?

There is definitely a difference between PDUs and hours of project management education. The PDUs happen after you have already become a PMP-certified project manager. You need to get a certain number of PDUs in order to maintain your certification. Meanwhile, the PM education hours must be attained in order to qualify to take the PMP exam.

And yes, you can certainly claim your Scrum course hours for 14 PDUs – the hours of PM education that you need to take the PMP exam does not necessarily have to be PMI-related material.

Unfortunately you cannot claim PDUs for work that you completed in project management before you became PMP certified. Basically, you will have a three-year cycle to claim your PDUs; you would put a start date and a completion date within that three-year cycle period to show what PDUs you have earned under category F.

I am willing to go for PMP certification but not sure how to get 35 contact hours (as its a pre-requisite to be eligible for undertaking PMP exam). I am self-studying the PMBOK guide (5th edition) for the same. I was handling Project management operation activities since last 2 and 1/2 years and having B.E. degree in CS with total 5.8 yrs of experience in IT industry. I have completed ITIL foundation (V3) certification 7 months back (30 May 2013).I am currently NOT a member of PMI.org site. Please guide me :

1. If I need to be a member of PMI.org site and If I register then am I bounded with any particular time for completing the certification ?
2. How to get the 35 contact hours ? Is it possible to use my PMP Self Study and ITIL certification self study in that area ? I have also done 10 Web based training for ITIL in my organization that took around 20 hours but not having any proof rather than having a screenshot of completion from my organization’s website of those WBT’s.

The 35 hours of project management education is required in order to sit for the PMP examination. But note that the hours of education do not have to be of PMI-related material (the five PMI process groups, and so on). It can be any project management education, such as college courses or graduate courses, or even Agile, Prince2, or ITIL courses. So your ITIL Foundation education will apply.

Meanwhile, you do NOT need to be a member of PMI to register… but you do get a discount on your PMP examination if you’re a PMI member. So if you are a PMI member, and your membership is about to expire, you might look to see when that last date to get the discount on the PMP exam might be.

Finally, I do not believe that self-study applies for the 35 contact hours. It has to be 35 hours of formal project management education. However, any sort of online studying does, I believe, apply (it just has to be formally recognized as project management training).

Hi Brian,
I need to claim 20 PMP PDUs as I have done an ITIL Course from one of the R.E.Ps listed in the PMI List. I was thinking of claiming these PDUs against Category-A but I am not sure if I should claim it against Category-A or Category-B. Could you help? Thanks in advance !!!

It sounds to me like you would claim the 20 hours of PDUs that you earned by doing courses with a PMI R.E.P. under category A: “Courses offered by PMI’s R.E.P.s or Chapters and Communities”. It seems pretty cut and dry to me!

I have my PMP and am looking to claim my PDU’s before my cycle ends this year, I have a question regarding Category D – Presenting in a webinar. I create webinars and present them, I do this regularly but the topic is not project management but it is a training for the project I am managing. Can I still claim these hours under this category? What type of documentation would you recommend if it is claimable?

No, unfortunately I do not believe that the work you have done presenting webinars in this way would count toward PMI’s Category D. The sorts of webinars and presentations you would want to do in order to apply for Category D would be webinars and presentations on the topic of project management – done in such a way as to advance education in the field of project management. Webinars presented on other categories would not likely apply.

Sorry for the bad news. The good news is, the project management presentations that you give do not necessarily have to be based on PMI’s processes or framework – you can give them on any project management topics. Perhaps you could add some webinars to your repertoire to present on project management? Then you could claim those for PDUs.

In this case, both the start and the end date need to fall within the current three-year cycle. However, you can claim the part of the PDUs that fall within the three-year cycle. So for example, if you worked for two years, but only one year falls within the three-year cycle, you can claim that single year.

Hi Brian
I have IT project coordination experience and would like to upgrade my skills with preparation for PMP certification. I was offered MS Project 2010-13 training & workshop at work. The course says with this workshop I can claim 45 PDUS with PMI. Is PMP workshop PDU’s different to MSP workshop PDU’s ? Or having with MSP workshop would conver one of pre-requisite for PMP ? BTW I have done ITIL V3 foundation course for 3 days and have certification. Can I consider those ITIL training hours as PDU’s ( 1 pdu per 1 hour). Appreciate your assistance
Thanks

PMP workshop PDUs are not different from MSP workshop PDUs, from what I know. Basically, there are PDUs you earn through PMI REPs (PMI-registered training providers), and PDUs you don’t. It doesn’t matter if the PDUs are offered by different companies, as long as they are project management training.

Meanwhile, it seems you can also claim your ITIL Foundation hours, as that is project management education. I checked on the PMI site; they do have some information about what courses are applicable, though you might have to search for it.

I have completed the REP course for PMP in Jan. 2013 when the 5th Edition was not yet declared. Now I want to appear for the PMP exam, so the PDUs earned from the above course is still valid or not. I need your reply on this.

Also is there any time limit after completing the PMP course to complete the certification.

As long as the ISO course involved project management education, you can claim those hours. According to the new rules that just came out in autumn of 2015 I do not believe there is a maximum number of hours you can earn in education – only a 35 hour minimum. You might want to double check that.

I took and pass 2 days Scrum Master Class last year. Also, I am currently studying MBA in Project Management and will finish Oct, 2015. The Project Management class from my MBA is 4 hours on my transcript and rest of the MBA hours I took already is 16 hours. The total hours I took already on my MBA in Project Management is 20 hours.

If you have taken all of this project management education (MBA project management, ScrumMaster, ITIL), you can definitely claim these hours toward your project management education and count those 35 hours toward the PMP examination. In fact, I did the same thing – I did not end up taking a PMP exam prep course as I also had completed a significant number of hours through graduate degree education and elsewhere. It will save you some money, and self-studying for the PMP exam is easy and effective.

We are organizing, Day long Project management workshop for our employees and most of them are PMP certified, and they will be certified as Participants, how they can claim PDU for this event and wich catagory they have to choose.

I do not know exactly what you would need in order to prove your training through this PMI REP, but I don’t think PMI is too strict. I would say that if they do question you about the legitimacy of the course, you can show them your receipt. If that fails, you can always contact the company to provide supplementary information, or maybe show them your certificate.

Meanwhile, yes, that would be 16 PDUs claimed, one for each hour of project management education.

My name is Ali. I wanted to ask about the “PDU Category > select Cat B: Continuing Education.” I have planned of taking online course and i learned that this course allows me to get PDU via Category B -Continuing Education.
So, I wanted to ask how many PDU’s i will get in this case ?

I don’t have any PMP certification like PMP, PMI ACP etc … but i have plan in future to go for PMI ACP certification. So i wanted to know that will i get enough PDU for PMI ACP if i take that online course.

Normally you would earn an equal number of PDUs as are in the hours for the course. So for example if the course is a two hour course, you would earn a total of two PDUs. However, if you do not have any PMP certification, then you will not earn any PDUs for the course… PDUs come after you earn PMP certification. They are required to upkeep your certification, and any hours you earned before getting PMP certified would not count – the PDUs must be earned in the three-year period after you get PMP certified, and then every three-year period afterward.

I believe you would claim any hours of project management education earned in this manner under Category B: Continuing Education. You would not claim it under Category A, as it is not education offered by PMI REPs.

Hi Brian, I managed the PMO team for a year and a half. Do you think I can claim PDU’s under “Work as a Practitioner”. By the way, I certified during March’2014 so would like to know if I should be considered under the old way of reporting PDU’s or the new one as per 2015. Thank you

Wondering which category the CSM 2 day training (~14 hours) PDUs can be reported against. technical, leadership, strategic – Not sure of breakdown (seems different providers have different breakdown or non existence guidance)

About the Author

I'm a Canadian and British dual citizen with an internationally-focused American MBA and an MS in International Project Management from a French business school. I am PMP, ScrumMaster, and ITIL Foundation certified. I'm particularly into travel, writing, and learning about different languages and cultures.